Young families, busy with little ones and bedtimes, are hungry for a ministry that doesn’t just accommodate their precious kids but serves them. Alan and Joanne Foley, a Twin Cities couple, knows this well. With a heart for the Faith and extensive experience with Minnesota public schools’ popular Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) model, they created Early Catholic Family Life (ECFL) to…
Recently, the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF) teamed up with Catholic Schools Center of Excellence (CSCOE) and the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education at the Archdiocese (OMCE) to offer a program to Catholic elementary educators called the Summer of Excellence.
At the beginning of each new year, I dream about what the months ahead will hold for my family, the world around us and, of course, the work of the Catholic Community Foundation (CCF). Pope Francis himself encourages all of us to dream, telling the crowds at World Youth Day in Kraków, Poland last July that God “wants to make you see that, with you, the world can be different.”
With the April tax deadline fast approaching, Americans start to realize we maybe should have made additional charitable gifts in 2016 to receive a more robust tax deduction. The good news is, with a little planning, you can turn that realization into next year’s reality. It’s never too early to plan ways to maximize the impact of your charitable gifts and achieve a favorable tax outcome for 2017 at the same time.
More U.S. dioceses are turning to foundations to help meet their financial and fundraising priorities. And foundation executives in the diocesan realm believe they’ve only begun to tap into the potential for these gifts.
Dan McKune, executive director of Catholic Community Foundation of Mid-Michigan, which covers the Diocese of Saginaw, said Catholic donors are used to giving to an annual diocesan appeal or a school fund. “But we still are not where we want to be,” he said. “Our donor base is about 1,000 people, and they’ve been very, very good givers.” However, he thinks the foundation could attract and retain 2,500 donors — and possibly twice that.
The way the Saginaw foundation is set up, it “deals more in perpetual-type funds,” McKune said. “Once the money goes [to the foundation], you don’t ask for it back.”
Anne Cullen Miller, executive director of the St. Paul-based Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota, said a Catholic community foundation provides a way to diversify fundraising strategies, moving beyond an annual appeal and weekly giving.
We are pleased to announce that Mary Haeg joined the Catholic Community Foundation (CCF) in January. As our Development/Gift Planning Officer, Mary will assist Vice President of Development and Donor Relations Richard Olson with the stewardship of individual planned gifts made to the Foundation. Though she originally hails from Minnesota, Mary comes to us from a three-year stint in Georgia, where she served as development director at Macon Volunteer Clinic…
For Larry and Suzanne Vanden Plas, investing for charitable giving is about the corporal works of mercy: They perform the works they can, and they support local organizations to do what they can’t with gifts from their donor-advised fund managed by Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota.
“When you look at the corporal works of mercy, how would you do that?” asked Larry, who along with Suzanne belongs to St. John the Baptist in New Brighton. “If you limit yourself to only those situations that you personally could do, one to one, you’re going to miss out on most of it … What we can do is support these different activities and actually be personally involved in some of them.”
To receive insights and updates to help them in what is often more long-term stewardship, the Vanden Plases and more than 200 other individual donors, financial advisors, and representatives of parishes and other Catholic organizations attended the St. Paul-based foundation’s 22nd annual investment conference Feb. 8 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
One of our Investment Conference speakers, a global expert in faith-consistent investing, Rev. Séamus Finn, OMI was interviewed along with CCF President Anne Cullen Miller on February 2, 2017 on Relevant Radio®. The radio program A Closer Look™ is hosted by Emmy award-winning journalist Sheila Liaugminas.
Bringing together donors and investors interested in giving and investing with a Catholic heart. Please save the date! Registration opens after Christmas, and a link will be made available on this page. You’ll gain clarity around what 2017 has in store for the economy. You’ll learn how Catholic investing continues to evolve. And, you’ll better understand how CCF navigates the marketplace to consistently steward more than 273 million charitable dollars to meet the needs of our local community.
Peace…this is our prayer This year has been filled to the brim with blessings of all kinds: old and new friendships, generosity beyond imagination, and incredible community impact that answered persistent prayers. The selflessness and commitment of this Catholic community never ceases to amaze us. And so, from our vantage point, we now say: it’s time for a little peace, it’s […]